How we make letters

Before anything is for sale, you answer up to seven short questions: your state, who is asking you to pay, what you have received from them, whether the account was personal or for a business, which situation fits you best, whether a dispute date has passed, and when you last paid.

Some answers stop the check, and we tell you why instead of selling you a letter:

• You have court papers. A dispute letter does not answer a lawsuit, and the court sets its own deadline. We point you to free legal aid instead.
• The account was for a business. The federal rules the letter relies on cover personal, family and household debts only.
• It is the company you originally borrowed from. Those rules mainly cover collectors and debt buyers, not the original lender.
• The debt is yours and the amount is right. Disputing it would mostly delay things, so we say so, and we give practical next steps instead of a letter.

Everyone else gets a plain verdict: strong, worth trying, or worth trying with a caution. It explains why, including when your strongest protection has already passed.

The letter disputes the debt and asks the collector to verify it. Its wording changes with your situation: there are separate versions for a debt you don't recognize, possible identity theft, a wrong amount, a debt already paid, a very old debt, and simply wanting proof first.

Timing matters most. The validation period ends 30 days after you receive the validation notice. The collector may assume you received it on any date at least five days after sending it, not counting Saturdays, Sundays and federal legal public holidays. The notice must print the end date. If you dispute in writing within the validation period, the collector must stop collecting the debt, or the disputed part, until it sends you verification of the debt or a copy of a judgment. If your dispute will arrive in time, the letter says so and cites the rule. If the date has passed, the verdict tells you the dispute is weaker, and the letter asks for verification without claiming a protection you no longer have.

Every letter asks for the same core proof: the original creditor's name and address, the signed agreement or other document showing you are responsible, an itemized balance, and the documents showing how the current owner came to own this particular account.

It also asks the collector to contact you only by mail. You can tell a collector not to use a particular way of contacting you, such as phone calls, and it must stop using it, with narrow exceptions. And it asks that the account be reported as disputed if the collector reports it to a credit bureau.

One rule applies to every word we write: nothing in any letter admits the debt, promises to pay it, or gives up a defense. Each letter says so in its final paragraph. That matters most for old debts, where in some states a payment or a written promise can restart the time limit.

Collectors do not always follow the rules after a dispute, so every purchase includes three follow-ups:

• A second notice if the collector keeps calling, writing for payment or reporting the debt before sending verification.
• A reply to a non-answer if it sends only a statement or a balance printout instead of documents.
• Complaint text you can paste into the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's form or your state attorney general's, if the collector ignores the dispute.

After paying, you can type the details from the collector's letter or scan it with your phone's camera. You also get the letter as a PDF and an editable Word file, step-by-step certified mail instructions, and a calendar reminder: one for the mailing deadline if your notice shows one, and one about five weeks later to check for a reply.

Every fact on this site, from a collector's dispute address to a state's time limit, is stored with the source it came from and the date we checked it. Sources are listed at the bottom of each page.

We prefer primary sources: the statute itself, court records, regulators, and companies' own websites for facts about themselves. Where we rely on guides or law-firm articles, we look for a second source. Our build refuses to publish any fact without a source, and flags any fact not re-checked within 180 days.

We also correct mistakes in public. Before launch, in October 2026, a review of our state pages found that one guide had described a failed Montana bill as law, that our Colorado page gave the wrong year for its wage protections, and that our Virginia and Oregon pages had missed 2026 changes. All were fixed and are listed on our changelog. If you spot an error, email [email protected].

The letters, guides and state pages are written by Alfie Usher, Challenge That Debt's founder.

The letter templates, the follow-ups and our state pages have been reviewed by a licensed US attorney, who has asked not to be named. We keep a record of what was reviewed and when, and any change to a letter's wording goes back for review before it goes live.

The review is of our documents, not of your situation. It does not make us a law firm, and nothing on this site, including our letters, is legal advice. Using the site does not create an attorney-client relationship with us or with the reviewing attorney.

Challenge That Debt is a document-preparation tool, not a law firm. We do not give legal advice, we do not represent you, and using the site does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you have been sued, or the amount at stake is large, talk to a consumer attorney or your local legal aid office.

Your answers to the check, and the details you type into the letter, are kept in your own browser. The letter itself is put together on your device. We never receive the letter or your answers.

When you pay, our server receives only: which product you are buying, the page you bought it on, your state, which collector's page you were on, and the time you agreed to the terms. Payment is handled by Stripe, which collects your email and card details; we never see your card number.

After payment we keep a purchase record for 30 days, so we can email you a link back to your letters. To make sure one purchase covers one account, your browser sends a one-way fingerprint of the account number, never the number itself. If you mistype it, you can correct it twice.

If you scan the collector's letter instead of typing, the photo is read on your own device by text-recognition software that your browser downloads from our site the first time you scan. The photo is never uploaded to us or anyone else, and it is not saved. You choose which details it found to use, and each one is marked so you can check it against the letter.

Because your answers stay on your device, please finish your letter on the same phone or computer you started on. Our privacy policy has the full details.

• We do not contact the collector for you, negotiate, or settle debts.
• We do not dispute entries with the credit bureaus. That is a separate process.
• We do not prepare court documents or help you answer a lawsuit.
• We do not promise any particular result. A dispute makes the collector prove its case; it does not erase a debt you owe.

The check is free. If a letter will help, it costs $29 once, for one account, with the follow-ups included.